


Just Take a Minute

by Oroburos



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alcohol, Dancing, F/M, Fluff without Plot, well ... fluff-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 07:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12626004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oroburos/pseuds/Oroburos
Summary: Shiro and Allura take some downtime





	Just Take a Minute

Shiro and Allura were in desperate need of a break and they were willing to take any excuse -- even an entirely useless diplomatic excursion to the Carnassus sector -- to get some downtime. The Carnassans, whose bureaucratic proceedings ran almost entirely on complex social displays, had thrown an elaborate gala and insisted Team Voltron attend. Since the event would determine what sort of aid Carnassus would commit to the war effort, and since Team Voltron was required to merely attend and enjoy themselves, Allura was quite happy to take the event as an excuse to wear a very pretty dress and to get pleasantly inebriated. Shiro, for his part, was happy to have an excuse to look at Allura in a very pretty dress. And to get pleasantly inebriated. 

The other paladins were just as excited for a party, and any complaints they might have were most emphatically not Shiro or Allura's problem. Coran was in charge of the kids for the night. 

("We shouldn't call them that," Allura worried. 

"I'll stop calling them kids when they stop calling me Space Dad," Shiro groused.)

 

They were taking a night off and by the stars they were going to enjoy it. 

 

Allura stood near the refreshments bar with a glass of wine in hand. She wore a shimmery starlit thing that left her back and arms bare, and the shadows of ghostly memories flit across her face like the dancers flowing across the ballroom floor. Shiro downed a shot of something vibrantly purple and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. It exposed his metal Galra arm, which he hated, but the atmosphere of the evening lent him courage to be vulnerable, even if only in this small way. He approached and smiled, bent at the waist and offered her his hand. "A dance, princess?" he asked. Then, softer, "before we turn in for the night?"

Her smile chased the shadows from her face. She downed her wine -- all at once, like a champion -- set down her glass and took his hand. 

They flowed onto the dance floor, moving with the music and the crowd. It was a slow song, a song for standing close together and shuffling in a circle Shiro would have called it a waltz on Earth. Here, it was an oddly etheric combination of low bells and chimes and something like a harp. The alcohol hit Shiro halfway through the song and he found himself grinning, stupid, counting constellations in the flecks of light in Allura's eyes. He had it bad tonight. She wasn't doing much better, humming along with the music as she stared at him openly, her voice airy and slightly off-key. At one point she stepped on his foot and he had to swallow a curse. She flustered an apology but he could only laugh and laugh until his breath ran out. She pouted, but he didn't care, and he kissed her right in front of everyone. 

The music shifted into something faster. The bodies around them began to spin and twirl, and they grinned at each-other. Allura took his hand in hers and led him through the press of the crowd, through the back exit of the hall, back to the rooms they had been given to stay overnight. Back to her room. Shiro had been given one as well, but he didn't plan to use it. 

She dragged him through the door and pushed it closed behind them. The room was a velvet riot of midnight and crimson, covered ceiling to floor in fabric. It felt like the inside of a tent, or maybe a nebula. They could still hear the music distantly. It felt almost magical. Allura spun them around and they fell into the bed set in the very middle of the room. They sank into the mattress...and then kept sinking. Shiro flailed in alarm. He crawled and clamored his way back up into a sitting position while Allura collapsed into a fit of giggles. 

Huffing, Shiro ran a hand through his hair and smiled through embarrassment. Allura lay among the folds of the bed with her hair spilling out around her. It would likely be a tangled mess in the morning. But that worry could wait for morning. Around the two of them the bed dipped in a circle like a people-eating nest of cloth. “I didn’t expect to get attacked by furniture tonight,” Shiro joked. “I’m afraid if we fall asleep in this we’ll drown in the middle of the night.

Allura hummed at him consideringly. “I think it will be worth the risk,” she said, grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down into the bed-slash-nest-slash-trap with her. Their weight pulled them down into a hollow in the mattress. Shiro revised his description; it wasn’t a nest, it was a hammock. Allura shifted closer and tangled their limbs together. Shiro ran his bare toe along Allura’s ankle -- when had he lost his shoes? He couldn’t remember. It didn’t matter. 

“Hi,” he smiled, staring into her eyes. 

“Hello,” she smiled back. “Fancy meeting you here.” 

“Where else would I be?” he murmured. He traced his thumb over the marking on her cheek. It glowed softly in the near-dark light.

Her hand found his waist and settled there. “Out somewhere saving the universe, I imagine.” 

“Not tonight.” He let himself relax, let the weight of responsibility roll off his shoulders, let the warmth of her body lull him into stillness. “Tonight, we’re…” 

She kissed him, gently. He didn’t have to finish the thought. She knew. 

He breathed in deep and wrapped his arms around her, curled himself around her and held her close. He traced patterns on her shoulders until he felt her relax too. The tension bled out of her like a physical thing, like melting ice. She started shaking -- she always did -- and he sang some half-remembered lullaby until it calmed.

And for a while they just shut out the world and breathed. Just breathed. Just the two of them together. “We’re here,” one of them said. “We’re okay,” the other answered. Everything else could wait until the morning.


End file.
